Fantastic Fun with Boomwackers!

Until I saw the ensemble The Fourth Wall perform, I had never heard of the musical instrument called a boomwacker. Low and behold, a google search later verified not only their “official” existence (I thought the Fourth Wall created them!), but that they are part of the percussion family. A bushwacker is hollow, lightweight and tuned to musical pitches based on the length of the plastic tube. They were introduced in 1995 and the founder’s company, Wacky Music, has sold 4 million+ units. I feel a I need to dust off my musical spoons collection!

Musical instrument? You decide:

Billing themselves as a “hybrid arts ensemble”, The Fourth Wall performed their show “Fruit Flies Like a Banana – 21 Things They Won’t Teach You at Julliard” at the IndyFringe Festival. Mom and I caught their final performance which was a bummer as we would have loved to see them again. It was so overwhelmingly fast – they perform 20 different acts in 60 minutes – a second viewing would have been even better and just as fun (particularly since the audience chooses the show order by blindly picking cards from a deck that are marked with the piece the troupe must perform!).

The boomwacker songs were Mom’s favorite; however, I loved the their performance of Vince Guaraldi’s “Skating” (the guy who did the soundtrack to “A Charlie Brown Christmas”) with “choreography” by Olympic skater Brian Boitano. Out of nowhere, the performers were “skating” across the stage on wheeled office chairs (along with a vibraphone on wheels). I was laughing so hard at one point I thought I was going to throw up. Take a peek:

There are just not enough vibraphone dancing #’s in my book!

Lest you think it’s all frivolity, The Fourth Wall performed a “serious” piece or two although always with a fun twist as you’ll see in this video:

Fantastic fun with Mom at IndyFringe this year! I highly recommend checking out The Fourth Wall if they come to a location near you!

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Planes, Trains and Wheelchairs--that's my life in a nutshell. A couple of years ago, I decided to show my mom the world, one airport ramp at a time. And with over 300,000-miles-traveled-together, I'm thrilled to say we've tackled every hurdle thrown our way (including the 32+ hour flight to Australia!)

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Planes, Canes, and Wheelchairs

Val Grubb’s father was a pilot, so she was practically born in the air and started traveling at the early age of four. Val and her mom took their first vacation together when her mom was 65, and in the 20+ years since then they’ve logged over 300,000 miles (and counting!). Covering trips to Thailand, France, Australia, China, and beyond, Travel with Aging Parents chronicles the triumphs (and challenges) of intergenerational travel with Grubb’s “you can do this” signature flair.